1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for treating the hair with water vapor and more specifically to an apparatus, for treating hair with water vapor, which includes a main base unit and a flexible hose for transferring vapor from the main unit to the subject's hair in the desired manner.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
The overall appearance a person presents is a significant factor in forming and retaining business and social relationships, as well as in maintaining a high level of self-confidence. The condition and aesthetic appearance of a person's hair lends greatly to the overall appearance they portray. Often times, a person's hair appears unkempt, unmanageable and less than healthy looking due to the fact that the hair has become moisture-depleted. Many factors such as time, climate, environment, stress and travel, may lend to the moisture-depletion of hair.
People spend a great deal of time on different hair-care methods such as blow-drying, curling and conditioning the hair with chemical conditioners, but these types of hair-care may be potentially damaging and are often time consuming and skill demanding in their use.
Various prior art devices have been proposed which treat the hair with steam as the hair is being dried by way of a blow-dryer. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,947,659 to Ono and 4,114,002 to Braulke, III disclose portable hand-held hot air blow-dryers each of which includes means for impinging steam on the subject's hair as it is being blow-dried with hot air. As these devices include, in their single hand-held housing, all of the necessary mechanisms for creating and supplying a flow of hot air as well as for creating and supplying a flow of steam, they may become quite heavy and difficult to maneuver. This problem is accentuated when it is desired to comb or otherwise treat the subject's hair while utilizing the dryer/steamer. Furthermore, it is not always desirable to utilize hot air blow-drying of the hair at the same instant as the hair is treated with the water vapor. These prior art devices thus have the disadvantage of combining the hair dryer mechanisms and steaming mechanisms in a single hand-held housing such that the device becomes heavy and cumbersome. Further, the Braulke, III device is not adapted to provide the hair with steam treatment exclusive of hot air treatment.
A further example of a combined hair dryer and hair moisturizer apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,111 to Doyle, et al. This apparatus is large, cumbersome, and advantageous only if the user wishes to be seated and have his or her entire head surrounded by a head plenum. This device provides both steam and heat, but cannot be utilized to treat only portions of the subject's hair as the steam and/or heat is applied around the entirety of the subject's head.